September 2012

Overview

It's September, and S.W.A.T. Magazine takes you back to school with a review of Force On Force Training with John Farnham at Defense Training International, while Ethan Johns takes a look at the lessons learned from using the M16/AR platform in modern combat.

This month's gear reviews include the ISSC MK22 rimfire SCAR clone, Mossberg's Modern Rifle Tactical, and the Century Arms Uzi carbine, as
well as a side-by-side comparison of a dozen top multitools, the BCM Gunfighter Grip, and the new Hinderer Rescue and CLS knives from Gerber.

Living Off The Grid

Return Of A Classic

• In Michigan, armed teams raid farms to enforce the slaughter of heritage breed pigs and piglets. Farmers who haven’t already killed their own animals become felons.

• In Pennsylvania, after two years of harassment by the FDA, an Amish farmer gives up and shuts down his raw milk business.

• In Indiana (and elsewhere), a giant agricultural corporation forces its way onto the property of farmers, demands their records, sues them or threatens lawsuits because its patented crops accidentally cross-pollinated with theirs.

We often think of bar fights as wholesome redneck entertainment, but in actuality bar brawls are brutal, ugly, and sometimes deadly. However, operating under the theory that bad things occasionally happen to good people, we’re going to talk about the finer points of being involved in a bar fight.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I’ve been around a bunch of these scuffles. Between nearly three decades of police work, playing drums in several cover bands, an underwhelming stint as a college student, along with a general love of a good time, I’ve experienced dozens upon dozens of barroom peccadilloes from many different angles. I will share a few lessons learned, but you owe me a beer.

There is no such thing as an impenetrable manmade fortress. Whatever you design, somebody else can gain ingress or destroy.

And since the latest fad, concern, or preoccupation—because of predictions from Nostradamus, the Mayans, and astronomers and astrologers—is the supposed forthcoming Apocalypse, many people are resorting to the concept of “survival bunkers.”

While there is nothing wrong with that per se, it may behoove you to take an objective look at your location and/or structure before physically having to test it for real. Objective, not subjective. Which means you’ll probably have to elicit a “trustworthy” third party’s opinion.

I’ve had several months to contemplate the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. This horrific incident set a new benchmark for brutality even when compared to all the other school shootings that have stained our country in the last decade.

By the time a worthless piece of human trash took his own life, 20 first-graders and six adult school staff members were dead. The crime shook the nation to its core, nearly caused a complete legislative disregard for the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, and scared the living hell out of every parent who reluctantly sent their child to school the following Monday.

Talking about the massacre to an upset friend, I tried to keep things in perspective by pointing out that nearly every year, more children die from allergic reactions to bee stings than mass school violence.